The 44th transported supplies and evacuated casualties in support of the British Eighth Army, operating from desert airfields in Egypt and Libya.

The squadron remained in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations until February 1944, when it again joined Ninth Air Force in England.

It became part of IX Troop Carrier Command, participating in the buildup of forces prior to the Allied landings in France.

The Squadron engaged in combat operations by dropping paratroops into Normandy near Ste-Mere-Eglise on D-Day (6 June 1944) and releasing gliders with reinforcements on the following day.

The squadron also hauled food, clothing, medicine, gasoline, ordnance equipment, and other supplies to the front lines and evacuated patients to rear zone hospitals.

It dropped paratroops near Nijmegen and towed gliders carrying reinforcements during Operation Market Garden, the airborne attack on the Netherlands.